Tina A. Hudson

Teaching mixed-signal integrated circuit design to undergraduates

A two-course sequence that teaches the basic concepts associated with digital, analog, and mixed-signal integrated circuit design for senior-level undergraduate students has been developed. The use of hands-on experiences using custom integrated circuits is employed to help teach these complex topics. This sequence has been taught for three years, and the affective learning has been assessed through precourse and postcourse surveys, focus groups, and in-class surveys.

Using Behavioral Analysis to Improve Student Confidence With Analog Circuits

This paper investigates the impact of teaching the behavior of analog circuits before proceeding to the formal, mathematical analysis, with the goal of improving student confidence with analog circuits. The behavioral analysis of two circuits is presented to show the level of detail provided to the students. Additionally, reinforcement techniques that encourage a deep approach to learning are presented. The effect on student confidence levels of introducing the circuit behavioral analysis is measured using three assessment methods. The results of the assessment suggests that being exposed to behavioral analysis improves student confidence with analog circuits and comfort levels with new circuits.

Working with industry to create a test and product engineering course

This paper presents a new analog product and test engineering course geared for undergraduate and masters-level graduate students. Industrial support has had a significant influence on the course by supplying real-world experiences for the instructor, data from real integrated circuits, and software providing hands-on experiences for the students. The students felt that the course provided a clear application of many of the concepts in their core courses and the industrial contributions significantly improved the quality of the course.

A novel circuit to implement linear threshold logic for digital computations

We have developed and fabricated a linear threshold element which applies the sum of weighted-inputs to a threshold, similar to the function of a neuron. Such a logic structure is extremely powerful because a single structure can perform a variety of functions ranging from standard Boolean operations (AND, OR, etc) to more complex operations like Majority and Compare. This particular implementation, using standard MOSFETs, is highly reconfigurable, allowing for multiple inputs and multiple positive or negative weights without requiring floating gate transistors. The circuit is also attractive for reconfigurable logic because of its regular structure and flexibility of inputs. We have implemented this design using a standard 0.6/spl mu/ process.

Creating a mixed-signal test and product engineering course

The paper presents a new mixed-signal test engineering course geared for undergraduate seniors and masters-level graduate students. The course provides a capstone experience for our electrical and computer engineering students, integrating many undergraduate topics while providing industrial hands-on experiences. The students were enthusiastic about the real-world experiences with an industrial grade automatic tester (ATE), the knowledge gained about data converters, and felt that the course had a good integration of lectures and labs.

Guest Editorial/Microelectronic Systems Education

The seven papers in this special issue were originally presented at the IEEE Microelectronics Systems Education (MSE) Conference, which is held in the US on odd years.

Work in progress - interdisciplinary laboratory-based advanced MEMS course for undergraduates

We have developed a two-course sequence in MEMS for undergraduate students at Rose-Hulman. The second course in this two-course MEMS sequence - and the focus of this WIP - has an integral term-length laboratory project. The study of MEMS provides a rich environment in which to provide students with truly interdisciplinary work and to present them with design problems having real constraints. Challenges include faculty coordination in these team-taught courses and delivering educational materials to a relatively disparate student audience.

Using industry-grade test equipment in a digital test and product engineering lab course

This paper presents a new digital test and product engineering course targeted to undergraduate seniors and masters-level graduate students. Through industrial guided labs, students were able to gain hands-on experience using an industry-grade automatic tester (ATE). Students indicated that the course provided an integration of many of the concepts from their digital core courses, and contributed to the development of skills essential to careers in test engineering or elsewhere.

Improving Student Confidence with Analog Circuits

This paper presents a method of teaching analog circuits, a necessary component in mixed-signal and SOC designs, that encourages students to pursue a deep approach to learning, thereby improving analog circuit confidence.

System of Interconnected Reconfigurable Linear Threshold Circuits

We have developed and fabricated a reconfigurable system based on Linear Threshold Elements (LTEs) that perform a variety of common logic operations using one basic structure. A single LTE compares a sum of weighted-inputs to a threshold and produces a Boolean output This operation is equivalent to the basic functions defined for artificial neural networks (ANNs). The reconfigurable structure was created by incorporating memory in the LTE and combining multiple LTEs together to produce a wider range of possible functions. The LTE structure presented in this paper is explicitly programmed by a host for logic tasks spanning multiple LTEs. However, the possibility exists to implement supervised learning or other neural network learning algorithms to train the LTE network for the desired operation.